Bill Thompson in Boston

BOSTON—In a city known more for its colonial history than for contemporary art, local artist Bill Thompson makes contributions to the field that'll take you way off the Freedom Trail. At his exhibition “Dialects,” on view at Barbara Krakow Gallery until next Wednesday, works like Loop (2007)—a shiny green form that is not as 3-D as a cube, not as flat as a rectangle, and has rounded edges that give relevance to its title—seem to reinvent shapes. His works defy easy categorization: His slabs of colorful acrylic urethane and epoxy block, designed to hang on walls, combine elements of sculpture and painting, though they lean toward the former. The pieces don’t depict something; rather, they are something (though that “something” is hardly definable). BE-AU-TY (2007), for instance, a deconstructed yin-yang triptych, is as balanced as its name, and KK5 (2007) enhances and beautifies common corrugated cardboard.

Thompson’s recommendations for artists now exhibiting in Boston follow in his vein, including Peter Evonuk, who transforms ordinary objects into the extraordinary, and Greg Mencoff, a local artist who renders forms so smooth they’re impossible to gloss over. Read on for Thompson’s takes on these and other shows to see this weekend.

1. Greg Mencoff: 412 Ounces at Bernard Toale Gallery, extended through February 16

“Mencoff has developed his own unique logic for the design and construction of his wall sculptures. The level of craft is mind-blowing but never overpowers the sensual retro-futuristic austerity that characterizes his work. These compact sculptures project precariously from the wall and then gently pull the viewer in for a calming visual conversation. I love the cooperative tension that he creates between the wood armature and the creamy white carved forms that it supports.”

2. Peter Evonuk: Dystopian Polemetrics (fun with bricks and bulbs) at Laconia Gallery, through February 23

“Visit this gallery to witness a comical electrocution—one of a pickle—and other perverse alterations of everyday objects and functions. Evonuk’s metalsmithing background is evident in a mousetrap so over-the-top it could feature in a James Bond flick, and the jeweler in him emerges in a striking gold-leafed cinder-block deconstruction. Don’t miss the prints made by microwaving CDs on paper or the laser-guided sledgehammer.”

3. Louise Bourgeois: Bourgeois in Boston at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, through March 2

“An inspired selection of Bourgeois sculptures, works on paper, and installations. Not many artists can remain contemporary at the age of 95, and even fewer could do it in such an enigmatic and independent manner. Her work floats timelessly from century to century, and the childhood that she mines for her ideas seems to be just one step behind her every move. There are no boundaries to Bourgeois’s creative process, and she’s a polyglot when it comes to the use of materials. No matter how many photos you’ve seen of her monumental steel spiders, it’s still shocking to be in the same space as one devouring the room around you.”

4. Drawing: A Broader Definition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through May 4

“The MFA’s print and drawing curator, Cliff Ackley, had some fun with this one, organizing works from the museum’s collection by subject matter, rather than period or genre. And by ‘drawing’ he is referring to the action of the hand, not just marks on paper, so we’re treated to depictions of trees, birds, the human figure, fish, and flowers executed on objects as diverse as loincloths, ceramics, and stone chips dating anywhere from 4000 B.C. to the 1950s. The interesting juxtapositions serve to unite cultures old and new and to truncate the scale of our evolutionary advances.”

5. Mary Armstrong: Memory of Desire: Mapping the Venetian Lagoon at Victoria Munroe Fine Art, through January 26

“Super-lush interpretations of Armstrong’s four-month sojourn in Venice fuel this exhibition with a gorgeous warmth. Using the ghostly constructs of 15th-century maps, she invents abstract charts of aqueous landscapes that look both ancient and Martian. Indications of the works' medium—“mixed media on paper”—do nothing to convey the physical passion that she obviously poured into their making. Her use of color is revelatory and challenging: In one piece, she somehow makes a brilliant statement in red using mostly turquoise. Armstrong doesn’t inspire me to purchase a ticket to Venice, but I’d happily travel to her studio to see the source of these paintings.”